


We're All Sweet and Sour

by SEpupppupp (ForNought)



Category: Produce 48 (TV)
Genre: F/F, Nako's there too being ambiguous and stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-28
Updated: 2018-08-28
Packaged: 2019-07-03 11:05:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15817608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForNought/pseuds/SEpupppupp
Summary: Hitomi and Nayoung work their way through a (metaphorical) fruit bowl.





	We're All Sweet and Sour

It starts with a grape and Hitomi doesn't really understand how. Grapes aren't her first choice for fruit because she finds they can be too tart - she'd choose something bright and refreshing like a strawberry if presented with many options - but the green grape gently pushed between her parted lips is smooth and cool and when she bursts the skin with a bite her mouth is filled with its restorative sweetness. Except the feeling in Hitomi’s mouth and her chest and the depths of her stomach isn't anything she remembers. 

Nayoung doesn't look anything like she has discovered a new feeling - the grape she munches on happily is quite ordinary so she isn't tamping down a fresh exhilaration - so Hitomi smiles and nods at the offer of another grape. 

Nayoung pops another grape into Hitomi’s mouth and it tastes disappointingly the same as the one before it. 

 

 

Hitomi is drinking mango juice and it has a rich flavour which clots itself in the back of her mouth. She can barely remember what it is like to taste something that isn't so sweetly tart.

She keeps sucking through the straw and watches the residual cloud the juice leaves on the inside of the cup as it recedes with her drinking. That is something far more captivating than Nayoung playing with Nako’s hair and telling her how pretty she is. 

Hitomi licks an orange droplet from the corner of her mouth and feels satisfied with the special ripeness she tastes in the juice. She'll have to return to the same shop to buy more later. 

Shopping is a happy thought and Hitomi will make sure she has plenty of time to browse some shops and recharge herself. She'll be able to buy plenty of ingredients that she has seen in recipes online and think about how she'll be able to cook things. Maybe she'll even search up a recipe for mango juice and make some herself. It is unexpectedly pleasant even though she has always thought of mango as having a sourness to it. 

The sourness arrives when Nayoung (chained to Nako with linked fingers and the pair of them even seem to clink together as they sit down beside Hitomi) leans into Hitomi’s side. 

“What's that you're drinking?”

“Mango juice,” Hitomi replies quickly. 

Nayoung prods at the plastic cup and a stray droplet of juice trickles around the indentation of her finger. She smiles at Hitomi, too cheerful of an expression because it makes Hitomi want to smile back even though she doesn't care at all she is only sitting here and minding her own business. 

Nayoung’s smiles are too dangerous because Hitomi doesn't even realise a question has been asked and answered and she is suddenly holding her drink up to Nayoung and watching as that dangerous smile closes around the straw and she's making Hitomi care very much. Nako is playing with Nayoung’s fingers and smiling happily and Hitomi finds herself wondering how someone can keep smiling like that in light of the situation. 

Nayoung licks her lips, chasing after the remnants of mango, and hugs Hitomi to her side. And Nako still smiles. 

“That's really delicious! You should let me know when you go to get more so we can go together,” Nayoung says. “Nako, I'll buy you some juice too!”

Hitomi sips more juice and nods quietly. She has found that sour aftertaste she expected from mangos only the shadow of flavour is more from herself than the juice. 

 

 

Hitomi crunches loudly on her apple though she isn’t too sure whether anyone else is actually disturbed by it. She would be distracted by the sound, the chewing barely quieter than the initial bites, but everyone else is ignoring the sound as Hitomi makes her way through the apple. They’re all discussing things that might be important but Hitomi isn’t making the effort to try to understand when she has the rest of her apple to enjoy. 

It is fine for Hitomi to sit and enjoy her apple up until Nayoung turns to her and says, “Is that alright with you?”

Hitomi hesitates for a moment before nodding and smiling. She even takes another bite of her apple for good measure. Nayoung narrows her eyes but doesn’t call her out on it even when Doa pokes her in the ribs and points out how little attention Hitomi has been paying. 

It isn’t until afterwards, when they are reading over their lyric sheets in the small practice room, that Nayoung shuffles over to Hitomi and rests her head on Hitomi’s shoulder. 

“You weren’t listening,” Nayoung mewls quietly. “I said such nice things about you.”

Hitomi is feeling a bit too cheeky because she says, “Say the nice things again so that I can hear.”

Nayoung closes her eyes and Hitomi wonders whether she’ll have to wake someone up minutes before they have to sing. But then Nayoung shifts closer and says, “You’re so cute, Hitomi.”

“You can’t see me,” Hitomi points out. 

“You look cute but you sound cute too. When you breathe it is cute. Your shoulder is cute so it is nice to sit like this.” Nayoung slings her arm around Hitomi’s waist and she rests her chin on Hitomi’s shoulder. Her eyes open slowly and she grins. “Laugh, Hitomi. Your laugh is the cutest of all.”

Hitomi wouldn’t be able to laugh if she tried. Air is stuck in her chest and Nayoung giggles as though it is that easy. It isn’t that easy but Hitomi just about manages to say, “You’re cute too.”

It is time to sing before either of them can attempt to laugh about it.

 

 

There is a platter of oranges roughly sliced into wedges that everyone is sharing. There had been a scramble at the start with too many people reaching for wedges which meant juice had been squeezed into the platter alongside a few remaining slices of orange which looked worse for wear. Hitomi manages to grab herself the best of the worst oranges and doesn't mind that she wasn't standing close enough to anyone who elbowed their way to the front to grab a handful for their friends. 

Regardless of the orange slice being relatively small and somehow looking as though a chunk had been torn from it already, the first bite bursts with refreshment. It is almost enough that Hitomi doesn’t see the point in dwelling on things that don’t measure in sweetness.

But she can’t help herself when she sees Nayoung and Nako snoozing against the far wall. Well, Nayoung is snoozing (and her head is tilted back enough that her lips are parted to let her soft snores escape) while Nako is loosing her hands from Nayoung’s grip so she can rub her eyes and look around in bewilderment at everyone enjoying oranges. Hitomi’s orange wedge could taste sweeter if she puts some effort into it. 

There aren’t many good slices left at all and Hitomi feels a little bit bad for taking the best one that remained seeing as the slices she picks now are wistfully narrow. But Nako smiles, bright and a little uncertainty in her eyes, as she accepts one of the slices in Hitomi’s outstretched hand. 

“Thank you,” she says. “Are you going to wake Nayoung up for some too?”

Hitomi isn’t certain how to go about that seeing as shaking Nayoung’s shoulder doesn’t achieve much. Nako gnaws at her slice of orange while watching Hitomi’s predicament. She unhelpfully adds, “I don’t think she’ll wake up like that.”

Hitomi doesn't know how else she would wake Nayoung up. She feels a bit bad attempting to wake Nayoung up for the sake of a disappointingly small orange wedge. But she would also feel bad if Nayoung didn’t get anything at all. Hitomi just thinks she’s stuck feeling bad. She doesn’t expect the feeling to subside when she stuffs the entirety of her own orange slice into her mouth and parts her lips for an orange rind smile and Nako scoffs. 

Nako can scoff all she wants because Hitomi is feeling bold for once. Nako’s scoffing turns to choking when Hitomi presses her orange skin smile against Nayoung’s cheek. Nako thumps her own chest with her fist when Nayoung is roused into flailing into her and knocks her over. Nayoung touches her cheek as she blinks her tiredness away. 

“Hitomi?”

Hitomi can’t speak in her current condition so she offers the last orange wedge to a confused looking Nayoung. 

“Thank you,” Nayoung says as she takes the orange wedge. “I could get used to being woken up like that.”

“You were extremely scared,” Nako wheezes. Nayoung shushes her and fits the orange wedge into her mouth to copy Hitomi. She pecks Hitomi’s cheek with her own orange smile and the cool press of orange skin is quickly burned away by the heat rising in her face. 

  
  

 

 

Hitomi doesn’t quite understand what she walks into but Nako’s eyes are wild in the way Hitomi never usually sees but she is shrieking happily as she dodges around a very confused Chaewon. Hitomi is standing in the doorway and she feels she can be thankful that Nako is looking at her with resignation rather than the determination to barrel right through her. Which is why it is such a surprise when Nako somberly lifts her hands and points a banana at Hitomi. 

It’s a banana, a piece of fruit, but that alone is enough for Hitomi to be aware of her mortality. 

“Bang,” Nako says sadly. Hitomi doesn’t quite follow even when Nayoung wails from the other side of the room and Nako says, “I just shot you.”

“Oh.” Hitomi still doesn’t understand but poor Chaewon gets pushed out of the way by Nayoung and this anguished approach would be silly if Hitomi didn’t play along. So she staggers back against the door and clutches her chest in time for Nayoung to catch her and hold her close while sinking to the ground. 

“Hitomi, don’t leave me,” Nayoung cries dramatically. “You have so much to live for!”

Hitomi sighs and knows that she can’t waste her dying breath. “Please… Avenge me.”

“Of course,” Nayoung promises before pelting Nako with her own banana gun. 

Nako stumbles right into Chaewon but this is apparently not the time for apologies because Nako instead settles for pouting at Nayoung. “I almost died for real.”

“Shush, this is serious,” Nayoung says to Nako as she ignores Chaewon’s complaints about being pushed for no reason. She cradles Hitomi’s face and it is surprising how comfortable this is. “I will attack as many people as you want with bananas.”

“What would I ever do without you?” Hitomi croaks. Nayoung laughs but it is a question she still doesn’t know the answer to.

 

  

 

Nayoung’s lips are slick and red and there is a stain on her cheek that someone points out but there is still a smudge of pink that remains when she wipes it away. She’ll need to have her makeup done again but she doesn’t look bothered at all by that as she laughs with some of the other girls. 

Moe squeezes Hitomi’s hand and smiles at her encouragingly. “If you want some fruit just go and ask for some.”

Hitomi laughs and it is strange how easily the tension in her stomach abates. “I should go and get some fruit?”

“You should get as much as you like. Nayoung would give you anything you as for.”

Hitomi isn’t sure that Moe is really right about that and it wouldn’t be good to ask for too much but she promises herself not to be greedy and she goes to ask Nayoung for some fruit. 

“Hitomi!” Nayoung cries as she jumps up from her seat. The hand that closes around Hitomi’s wrist is unfortunately sticky but she doesn’t think too hard about that when Nayoung is practically sparkling at her. “You look so pretty! I hope I go blind right now so the last thing I’ll ever see is you!”

Hitomi can’t help but laugh at something so silly. She pokes at Nayoung’s cheeks. “Please don’t go blind. There are so many better things for you to see in the future.”

Nayoung pulls a face and sighs. “Alright, I won’t go blind. But that just means that you must promise to see everything with me.”

“I will see everything with you,” Hitomi vows as she takes Nayoung’s hands into her own and sways them gently. “But only if you give me a strawberry.”

Nayoung chuckles and slips her hands from Hitomi’s to reach for the punnet of strawberries on the table beside her. She holds the stem of a particularly plum strawberry between her thumb and forefinger. “Strawberry Hitomi. I will give you every strawberry in the world!”

Hitomi bites into the strawberry held before her and thinks that the promise is already being kept very well. She chews slowly and almost as instantly as the words come to mind she says, “I will give you all the other things in the world.”

“You really are the cutest,” Nayoung says with more strawberry stain spreading across her face. The blush deepens when Hitomi tightens her grip on Nayoung’s hand and there isn’t any sweeter fruit than this. 

**Author's Note:**

> i have a million fics to be writing and none of them are this one and now these girls won't even debut together 8-8


End file.
